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Jennifer Pitman is watching her toddler Beckett grow up along with their family Christmas tree.

The Los Angeles mom is renting the same Charlie Brown-type potted tree she did last year and she notes the spruce — like her son — has "filled out" since last December. The company that delivered the tree Tuesday will pick it up after the holidays and store it at a nursery until next year, outfitted with a bar code to make sure it's the right one.

Welcome to the fledgling rent-a-tree industry, which has gained ground in recent years as eco-minded consumers seek a natural tree without the possible guilt of dumping it curbside later.

At least seven companies or environmental groups on the West Coast are now offering the service — another option in the evergreen debate whether natural or artificial trees are more eco-friendly.

Pitman's reaction when she first heard about the Living Christmas Co.? "What a freakin' awesome idea," she says. The Los Angeles-area based firm, which did a few trial deliveries in 2008, rented 640 trees last year and expects more than a 1,000 rentals this year.

"It's definitely convenient," says Pittman, now nine months pregnant with her second child, of the $100 door-to-door service. "But the whole philosophy overrules everything else," she says. She grew up on Cape Cod where her family bought and disposed of a tree each year.

This disposal issue is often cited by artificial tree fans, who also note a real tree's potential fire hazard and its messy pine needles.